When a Martech guy walks into AdTech... and lives to tell the tale.
I’m a complete novice when it comes to AdTech and raising my two teenage kids. And Mike brought me up to speed on one of those topics.
Programmatic, DSPs, audience segments… it’s always sounded like a parallel universe to the Martech world I live in.
So when I sat down with Mike Hauptman, co-founder and CEO of AdLib DSP, I treated it as a chance to get schooled and he didn’t disappoint.
We talked about how programmatic advertising actually works, why it got so complicated, and how AdLib is trying to make it as easy as Google Ads, but smarter.
Mike’s honesty about what it takes to build a sustainable business in such a fragmented space really stood out.
“Can you build a simple UI? Yes. Can you build a business around a simple UI? That’s way harder.” ~ Mike Hauptman
He also made me realize how much of AdTech’s future depends on keeping humans in the loop, even as AI starts to reshape campaign optimization and creative workflows.
“Right now it’s like having a data scientist on hand for free — one that never gets tired, never takes a coffee break, and doesn’t mind being told to redo something ten times.” ~ Mike Hauptman
We also touched on the privacy and consent side of things. Where AdTech and Martech really start to overlap. And yes, I finally got a clear answer to how first-party data, clean rooms, and DSPs all connect (something I’d politely nodded through for years).
Visit AdLib to learn more ⬆
What I learned?
That AdTech isn’t as foreign as I thought, it’s just been hiding behind its own layer of complexity.
And that entrepreneurs like Mike are building the bridges we’ll all be crossing sooner than we think.
👥 Connect with us on LinkedIn:
- Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljhauptman/
- Matthew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewniederberger/
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